Marcus Thompson II in the Contra Costa Times reports, "It appears the Warriors aren't going to be able to snatch power forward Elton Brand from the Los Angeles Clippers. The buzz among NBA insiders is that Brand — by all accounts a class act — will honor his word and remain with the Clippers." [Hat Tip: Petey Pablo]

"Buzz" and "by all accounts" doesn't exactly translate into "dry ink," or even "verbally committed," but it might be about as concrete as it gets for a holiday weekend.

Your 2008 Clippers Summer Team. Keep an eye out for Pasadena Polytechnic High grad, former Penn Quaker standout, and Academic All-Ivy forward Koko Archibong. The Nigerian baller got a shot with the Lakers a few years back, and was last spotted bumping around the BBL in Germany. Archibong probably won't make the Clippers' 08-09 roster, but he's a Clipperblog favorite.

From John Hollinger at ESPN.com: "On paper, few pairings seem more flammable than Mike Dunleavy and Baron Davis. Dunleavy is a control guy at the offensive end who likes to call set post-up plays over and over, while Davis has bristled under every coach who didn't give him free rein to launch contested 3s off the dribble with 21 on the shot clock. Don't get me wrong, Davis is a fantastic player. But I wonder how it's going to work when Dunleavy calls 4-down six plays in a row and whether Davis' disdain for structure ultimately will cause him to underachieve the same way he did for Tim Floyd, Byron Scott and Mike Montgomery."

I don't think it's an unfair point. The portfolio of post players Davis has teamed with includes the likes of P.J. Brown, Jamaal Magloire, and Andris Biedrins. So running point for a post team that's inclined to start things down low will probably require an adjustment on Davis' part.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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i'm concerned over the possible friction (MDsr/BD), but hopefully both guys will realize they have a unique situation here to embrace and rise above any and all petty bullshit on our way to the finals.
or the 8 seed.
it's alot to hope for that EB is back and the new lineup gels (and stays healthy) and Sr. gets them all rolling in the right direction. but right now, I'm looking for that and 50 wins for starters.

Koko Archibong!!!???!?!? Are you serious? I can't stop picturing an ape in a vest, riding a unicycle, wearing a fez (of course), smoking weed till the wee hours of the morning. If I was drinking milk it would have come spewing from my nostrils all over the damn keyboard. Oh my God, I'm giddy. I never knew a name like that even existed. Not even in my wildest dreams. I am now making it my life's mission to meet this man. Dunleavy, if this man makes the squad you are totally redeemed!!!!

It's also worth noting that when the Clips did the right thing in letting Sam play for the Celtics in March, as Sam and EB share David Falk as thier agent, Falk recriprocated that good deed with helping to engineer BD coming and EB staying. That was good business as it showed the Clips to be a class outfit, and one can't not think that this helped in allowing BD and EB becoming reality next week.

What kind of lift can Eric Gordon and Al Thornton give the Clips summer league team? Thornton averaged 24 ppg last year. Im interested in Gordon's performance as well as deAndre Jordan's. My opinion is that Gordon will be a pleasant surprise given a lot of other peoples
doubts and low expectations.

omfg
saw Baron Davis at Equinox on Sunset this morning. I'm not one to go up to peeps and say hi, but just had to tell him "Welcome home, go clippers!" He was very thankfull, wondered about the spinning class I was going to, then off on his way! I almost told him I cried when he signed with the Clippers, but I thought that might be a little too much at the gym. He did beat me in highschool basketball in the 8th grade and I have never forgotten. Now he can repair the damaged relationship by getting the Clippers a nice ring! I'd forgive him then!

Sounds like BD has never played with a first option post player. Probably Al Harrington is the best post player he's played with. So I think the jury is still out on whether he can thrive with EB. I do recall that when Harrington waa hot, GS would pound it down to him frequently.
It could be that BD was always the best option on his teams.

I feel that there will be a little give and take between BD and Dunleavy. In order to really get BD in a flow and into the game, he's got to be able manage the offense personally at points in the game. I think his basketball IQ is up there, so he's not going to get too far away from feeding EB in the post, either driving and passing off, or creating space and dumping. He knows EB's game, and he won't be the type of PG who'll forget.

Like all of the other nervous Nellies, I'm crossing my fingers until the 9th when the official word can be made... BTW and FYI, there's a great deal for season tickets in section 200 ... something like $3,000 for two sets of season tickets. I need to start counting my change ...

Hollinger's point is absolutely correct. Dunleavy will micromanage this team - with Brand - into the ground. Team chemistry and the locker room will start to unravel by Christmas, and I just pray to god that Sterling steps up and does the right thing by cutting loose this abject failure of a basketball coach.

Maggette deserves all the money he can get. There isn't another player in the league who has suffered more, or been treated worse, at the hands of a 'coach'. I hope he is able to stay in the west.

Over at ClipsNation it's being called "Phase Two," or getting greedy. There are different theories on why EB's deal isn't done, and the most obvious one is that the more he looks at the other teams and takes his time, the less collusion talk there will be.

But aside from all that you have to wonder: nothing is signed yet and the BD agreement, along with Brand's own commitment to building a competitive team along the lines of the Celtic model, puts the Clippers in the drivers seat. Now is the phase of reaction from GSW and the 76ers and others, and there is still a possible scenario for a forced sign-and-trade that would get the Clippers back their MLE and Brand his Bird rights. There could be more to all this.

As far as Hollinger goes, he couldn't be more irritating. His swipe at the Clips is filled with his usual contradictions, and a big part of his argument is that it evens out because it boils down to BD replacing Sam Cassell. I think we'll take that as a marked improvement.

But the statement about BD and Dunleavy is an irritating contradiction as well. Some of us remember Hollinger's strong criticism of the Cassell and Mobley deals, which he thought would never work, because they were selfish, difficult players. Dunleavy showed that if there's one thing he's good at, it's handing things over to the smart, talented veterans he brings in (as opposed to the ones he inherits, like Maggs), and creating a supportive double standard for them. This rule of thumb even applies to Tim Thomas--you think Dunleavy is immediately going to go out of his way to try to change Baron Davis? Any time Hollinger wants to give the Clips some credit and acknowledge that a lot of their problems (tho not all) have been due to injuries, it would be welcome--and a first.

Anyone know if the Clippers will still have a MLE if/when EB verbally agrees to resign? We need to strengthen our bench and if we can't use the MLE then perhaps we can still s&t Corey to somewhere like the Hawks for Childress.

The dunce wants BD cause it'll save him from being fired within the next 12 months, otherwise sure he'd much prefer his son and his PG scrub re-treads he's used to. I suspect even the dunce is smart enough to know that he has to have BD here to have a chance to save the job

We saw what happens when they lose Brand.Livingston and eventually Cassel.(and a few games of CM & CK)a record of 23-59.
The 06-07 record of 40-42 was disappointing with the team missing the play offs. What happened that season? Livingston went down mid season and Cassel missed a chunk of the year with injury.There was also the excuse of the team being tired having played their pre season in europe.Elton Brand played with team USA that summer and got married.He was a bit worn
by the end of the season.
With a healthy team for the most part they went 47-35 in 05'-06'.

With some internal issues rising and some injury they go 40-42 in 06'-07' .

In 07-08 they end up 23-59

So what can we expect for 08-09? 47 +?
Baron Davis' scoring might drop to 17-18ppg but i think his assists will remain similar ,maybe 8 or 9 on his average.

Al Thornton - Most good / all star plyers show a great improvement the years following their rookie season.Increasing their ppg and IQ . If he averaged 12.7 last season, could we expect 15.0 this season?

What condition will EB enter in? I expect he will have his typical year 20-10- and 2blocks.If he and BD mesh then i would say EB's number are higher.

Will Livingston ever play? will he be signed ?
Kaman should maintain his conditioning while playing with Germany.He should return with 13ppg 12rpg and 2bpg.
Mobley and TT should benefit from less minutes and should return more interested in winning now that they are going in a full team.

I can only hope that Dunleavy doesnt ruin the season in any way.I have a tniy bit of faith that he will regonize that he needs to inspire the team and win games.

Is anyone else bit concerned about Kaman playing for Germany, and possibly tiring himself out or worse like Pau Gasol did the year before last?. My great grandfather is German too but getting citizenship and playing with them for the Olympics seems a bit over the top if you ask me. Doesn't Kaman have any loyalty to the 50 mill we gave him???

I think it's stupid he's allowed to play for Germany though. Sorta a traitor to the country and the Summer league team. He doesn't even play pro-basketball in Germany. They should have more rules for stuff like this (Like have you citizenship for 5 years).

And Gon, I'll stop calling him the Dunce when him and Sheed hug it out.

??? Says who? If your name's Jonathan, and you shorten it to Jon, why the hell should you add a silent "h"?
Anyway, who's out there that that you would rather have as head coach? I'd be all for getting rid of Dunleavy if I knew we were getting the guy that could lead us to a championship. At least MDSr has taken a team to the Finals.

Is anyone else worried that maybe Baron, although a terrrific player, may not be right for us. I mean watching a lot of the warriors games it seemed like he was not that good from long range and if he is continually just feeding the ball downlow and waiting for a kickout he may attempt for 3's then we need him to do.

Some part of me is worried that if he settles for jump shots instead of using his power then we will not be getting as big of a steal as we al thought

Mike dunleavy Sr. will give bd the "freedon" to dictate the offense.Remember how he treated Sam Casell?How about how he treated the best point guard of all time (Magic Johnson)?He and Magic brought the aging L.A Lakers to the Championship remember?

Summer League were free on the internet last year. hopefully this year too.

Dunleavy let Casell run the offense?

I see a lot of Davis benchings next year. I hope I'm wrong.

And no excuse for the team being worn out from playing in europe... If the team was so worn out, why was the guy with the most energy benched for Q Ross and Christy? If playing a few games in Europe is gonna change your game the whole year, you shouldn't be in the NBA.

Sam Casell run the offense. He shoots when he likes it and he passed when he feels it.Mike Dunleavy give him the "reign".Remember the phoenix series where casell committed a crucial turnover when he failed to cross the halfcourt?Did u hear dunleavy complain about that? the way I see it he's spoiling casell to a fault.how about magic johnson.There is a story that when md came to the lakers he immediately give magic a book which contains all his plays.Magic threw it and told md that all the plays are here (pointing to his head).After that they made it to the championship but eventually lost to the bulls.